Unfair competition from hawkers and the failure to enforce their licence conditions is a major headache for vendors, according to the chamber of SMEs.
These hawkers include those who set up in front of shops on special occasions selling similar wares, such as flowers on Valentine’s Day, said Abigail Psaila Mamo, CEO of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, GRTU.
However, conformity to the conditions of their licences is often overlooked and the hawkers tend to overstay the time limit, she said.
Businesses were hoping that the sporadic licensing of hawkers would be sorted out this year.
At the same time, hawkers, including those travelling from Sicily to sell their wares in Malta, did not always issue VAT receipts, Ms Psaila Mamo added. None of the hawkers issued a receipt during a recent mystery shopping exercise by the GRTU.
After the Chamber brought up the issue with the Inland Revenue Department, it was told that these traders were untraceable as they were not registered with the VAT department since they claimed they did not earn more than €7,000.
However, from this year, no matter how much a vendor planned on earning, they still had to register for a VAT number and issue receipts. If they did not surpass the €7,000 threshold, they would still not pay VAT.
Ms Psaila Mamo said the Chamber was expecting this move to have a positive impact and reduce abuse. Other issues of concern for businesses include accessibility to Valletta for consumers and lack of parking spots to unload merchandise.
Delivery companies were being slapped with fines for parking outside shops to unload and load products, GRTU president Paul Abela said at the launch of the chamber’s yearly survey figures yesterday.
The chamber would be discussing this issue with the government now that the local warden system had fallen under its remit.
The survey shows that 48 per cent of the 183 retailers that took part in the study saw their sales increase in 2015 when compared to the previous year.
However, only one per cent of these attribute this increase to going online.
Meanwhile, 16 per cent of those who saw a decline in sales feel that this was because of sales lost to online shopping. Another 21 per cent said this was because of increased local competition.
When asked about their plans for this year, a third said they planned to expand their business in Malta while four per cent would like to expand overseas.
2015 sales in figures
• A third of enterprises saw sales increase by up to 10 per cent over 2014.
• Sales decreased for a quarter of businesses
• 21 per cent believe sales increased because of better spending power
• 13 per cent blame drop in sales on lack of parking
• While five per cent will downsize their business, four per cent will expand it abroad
• Half were satisfied with turnover during festivities
• Only two per cent think Black Friday was the best day for sales during festivities
• A fourth are dissatisfied with the turnover in January.